365 marathons in 365 days!

No, no, no ! I’m not planning to do that at all. But it is what a Belgian ultra-mega-hyper endurance athlete called Stefaan Engels plans to do in 2010.

No kidding. 365 marathons in 365 days. He’s started already and finished four consecutive marathons since 1st January 2010. Have a look at his website – MarathonMan365 – which, alas, is only in Flemish. But you’ll get the gist ! Here’s a link to a short article in French.

If he keeps it up until 22 February he will have broken the current world record apparently. That stands at 52 marathons in 52 consecutive days in 2009 and is held by the Japanese runner Akinori Kusuda who was 65 years old when he accomplished that.

Stefaan Engels website’s subtitle “Feel Good Tour” seems a bit incongruous to me. I don’t think I’d feel too great after running marathons on four consecutive days in the cold which is currently gripping Belgium, especially with the prospect of 361 more and no days off.

Frankly, I’m a bit lost for words. Anyway, all the best, Stefaan !

Posted by Xavier.

(Not sure how to categorise this post given my reluctance to create a “nuts” category, so I’ll leave it as “uncategorized”, in the sense of “extraordinary”).